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Nice! Closing in on a dozen routes on the Spider! What a great venue you guys have in your area. We are gonna need a bigger guidebook!

Damn. That is crazy close to getting the chop. Glad you survived to post the TR!

We should rename this thread to "North Cascades climbers to have more first world problems"

Sorry for the thread drift…

Also check the size of this thing! From out by Quilcene a couple days ago.

Meanwhile.... https://www.yahoo.com/news/shoot-owls-california-don-t-175431421.html

Nice corner you guys got on looks to have some good rests and possible stemming. Is it in its way in or out I haven't been down there this year?

Nice work, guys! Looks like a fun line with some interesting and creative climbing! It sucks that that single malevolent rock took a run at you. Glad your, ahem, spidey sense tingled in time to duck!

New grizzlies in the North Cascades sound great, but reintroducing Suciasaurrus rex would be rad. It is the official Washington State dinosaur https://www.heraldnet.com/news/suciasaurus-rex-may-become-washingtons-official-dinosaur/ While introducing new grizzlies may be a good thing, I imagine a few new migrants are traveling south from BC

On April 13th Koby Y and I climbed what we believe is a first ascent on the far-left side of the Black Spider. We humbly submit this report for the historical record and for review by the fine netizens of cascadeclimbers. If you know of this line being climbed before, please let me know and I'll PRINT this trip report and then EAT IT (and appropriately redact our claims here). This route is labeled "waterfall" on the hand-drawn topo, left of the "waterfall" that later became the Fric-Amos route: Here's the route from the side, photo taken from the base of Cooper Spur in December (side note: despite looking fat in this photo, Fric-Amos was 100% unprotectable snice): This is a bit of a "lite"/"diet" Black Spider route, not tackling the entire face but rather topping out onto the Newton Clark Headwall about halfway up. Despite this, we did about as much technical climbing as on the neighboring Fric-Amos route and found it surprisingly engaging. It's a bit tough to grade as the ice was quite thin but we'd say it goes around WI4 with a couple M3-4 moves thrown in. I assume that like other routes on the Spider it could become easier and perhaps go entirely at WI3 in fatter conditions. On to some photos of the climb. Here is the face from below with the Arachnophobia second cliff band looking quite fat for April. Our route (which you can't really see as it's tucked in the corner) above the arrow: Next photo, approaching the route. There's currently a LOT of snow over there so the first steep bit visible in the side view above was totally buried. We just walked up into the little snowfield though there were a couple patches of low-angle water ice. Koby coming up into the snowfield: At the top of the snowfield we built an anchor and pitched out the rest of the climb. Here's looking down after the initial steep bit (WI4-ish?) of pitch 1: A couple photos from higher on pitch 1 below. Somewhat tricky climbing up a series of brief vertical steps with some thin/snicey/delaminating sections: I only led about 25 meters before building an anchor, as there was a patch of fat blue ice, a decent pin placement, and I guess I had already used all but one of my screws, sewing it up out of fear in my typical style. Here's Koby leading out above the anchor, about to do perhaps the hardest move on the route involving a brief torque in a horizontal crack to reach the good ice up above: Above this was mostly mellower, typical Mt Hood WI3-ish: Pitch 2 ended up being about 35 meters before joining the Newton Clark Headwall. In reality, we may have been able to squeeze all of our serious climbing into 1 60m pitch, though in more typical conditions (less snow) it looks like gaining the snowfield could require a bit of ice climbing, so it seems reasonable to expect to do at least 2 pitches. We simuled up the rest of the headwall, climbing one last short bit of WI2 between two gendarmes to join the upper Wy'East route to the summit: A couple final notes: First, thanks to Zach and Artem for trying to get this done with me the week prior. The wallowing was, unfortunately, insurmountable: Second, we did have one scary rockfall encounter that I feel obligated to mention. While belaying Koby on our second pitch, shortly after he topped out, a microwave-sized block spontaneously detached in the bowl above me and narrowly missed my head (I ducked), instead hitting my pack and ripping out the picket I had racked in the side pocket. A good reminder that climbing on the Spider sucks and to put the belays in more sheltered spots. This is really my fault for putting the anchor right in the fall line, I thought that we were much closer to the top of the route than we were in reality and that there wasn't that much overhead hazard. Thankful to emerge unscathed. Picture of the rock below: Thanks for reading.

Yeah shits been like that for a while my man. Sorry. Right now focused on keeping the site around, many sites have died, good ones. We are still going. I was working on getting a better TR system in place and made progress. But then that fell apart as the developer kind of went his own direction. You can still find stuff. And yes it could be better. I'm the only one running the site from the technical side. @JasonG and a few other mods keep things clean. Honestly I'd like to eventually hand the site over to a new guard of younger folks who will not commercialize the site and keep the community aspect alive...but also can make it better. Life has been taking me personally in a lot of different directions, but I still love this site and am committed to keeping it going. Also invite new energy and drive, but it has to be selfless, and directed towards keeping this going like a non-profit entity. Thankfully we have a great sponsor in the American Alpine Insitute, and we have had generous donations from the users of the site. There is a TON of great stories here, and they continue to grow. We will find a way to keep that alive.

Back in the day of cascade climbers there was a "trip report" tab/page or whatever you call it where all the trip reports funneled into "one" tab/page or whatever you call it. I miss that. Now it's under each category like freshies , north Cascades, central , international and so on. Is there a way I can see trip reports in one page like it used to be? Please flip me shit for my ignorance in this matter it brings me much joy. Cheers

Don't get on cc much anymore. But I like this idea. I will try and post a pic when I log in. A nice evening in a place close to home. Cheers.

Yo Matias! Strong work! It’s Coby, idk if you remember me, we guided a year together at RMI. I’m attempting to ski off Begguya this May. If you are willing I would love any and all mountain wisdom and/or beta of the route.

@Kameron yeah, I missed the presentations but Abram pointed out the other locations to me on a map later on at the meeting. You may be right about the multiple Heliotrope huts, not sure. In any case this is perfectly to your point about the vagueness of the whole enterprise. Also, if he didn’t mention those other shelters to the group at large, it contributes to the shady vibes I was referring to in my original post - seems like they’re happy to keep the other possible sites out of the public mind.

Excellent job and wonderful pictures! wondering what you guys would rate the climb?

Get your comments in by May 2, folks!

Regarding Roundhouse/Anderson-Watson: This is my favorite of the proposed locations from a ski perspective. However, one of the proponents has moved to Bozeman and the other hasn't been responding to requests to talk about it. It is unclear whether that group is seriously interested in making that hut happen or not.

I sure hope they put in bear boxes at the campgrounds. That makes things just so much easier than carrying bear cans/hanging/etc.

I was at the meeting, too. My takeaways were that things are just too vague--various clarifications were made at the meeting but we need to see things in writing to be sure that's the real plan. @tbickford I felt like I heard something different in what Abram said. I thought he said they'd like "2 huts at the Heliotrope trailhead", not Grouse ridge etc. I personally don't think there will be enough demand at Heliotrope midwinter to make even 1 hut work, since there is very limited protected terrain (at least that I'm aware of). Maybe the glamping crowd will be into it regardless. I am involved with CBA, and we put together this blog post asking people to comment: https://www.cascadebackcountryalliance.com/post/4-huts-proposed-for-mt-baker-region (There is a minor mistake in the post; the snowmobile club hut is not an overnight one)

Drove up on Tuesday, April 23 to check on any winter's damage. The road to the parking lot is in great condition, with no new damage. Hiking up found a lot of new rocks have slid down into the area which has stopped all car traffic in recent years, about a quarter-mile up from the parking lot. I dragged many of them away to form a smooth path through the rock pile. Further up, used the axe to clear away several large alder and one fir log. The road/trail is now clear for bike riding to all turnoffs to the Squire Creek Wall routes. A huge log came down in the landslide area, pushing small alders over the trail: Further on, logs across the road were easily cut with the axe: I spent the rest of the afternoon moving rocks from the rockslide area just a quarter-mile above the parking lot. The resulting path is smooth but much higher than before; I'm not sure I can ride it with my meager bike-handling skills.

Solid!! Well done on a route that doesn't see a lot of traffic. It always seems a bit insecure and scary up that thing, but looks like you found it in good conditions this year. Sunday was definitely nice and cold up there (we were shivering on Goat wall!), which is I think quite key.

Sure, that is how this all reads. I'll go back to my ivory tower.

Trip: Washington Pass - North Early Winter Spire: Early Winter Couloir. Trip Date: 04/21/2024 Trip Report: https://www.gorobets.com/TRs/Early_Winter_Couloir_2024_04_21.html Gear Notes: two 60m ropes cams 0.05-3 2 pickets small nuts pins (didn’t end up using) five screws 9-13cm Approach Notes: No flotation was needed.